She/They, female-identifying, sexuality questioning. Profile picture made by Spade (@Spadeflame) on twitter. I'm in a lot of fandoms and like to share them sometimes, when I'm not questioning why I'm in said fandom.
Blurbs of writing, attempts at art, or any other wacky thoughts that come to my mind
Hi. I'm Sly, Slemony, or Slythepuff. I go by she/they pronouns and am basically a tired ball of anxiety with legs. I'm trying to be more social, and what better way to do that than with social media? I'm a multi-fandom person (Current fandoms will be listed in the tags and are subject to change), so I like a lot of things and like making stories or headcanons for them.
Most of what is on here will be my writing, because that's what I'm best at. I'll be posting fanfics, original works, headcanons, world-building, AUs, characters etc. If people like my concepts, they can use them so long as I'm credited. If people have prompts or suggestions for me, I can try my hand at them. And if people have questions, I'll answer them to the best of my abilities.
Other Links:
Ao3
BlueSky
ArtFight
WHAT I WILL NOT DO:
NSFW (Suggestive at most, I'm too shy to share anything else lol)
Anything illegal and/or gross
That's all for now folks. I hope you enjoy my silly blurbs and stories on here.
10 during events of the game. Kinda spoilers below? Just in case, putting it under read more
A child that was soley raised in an orphanage who ran away in a fit of anger. They boarded the first boat they saw, using two men arguing as a distraction to sneak aboard. They were discovered by the man wearing blue when trying to sneak off the boat on the island, being brought to the Doctors Morose. Thomas was originally just going to send them back to the orphanage they came from, but they escaped the room they were being held in, stumbling upon some of the experiments.
So, the doctor found another use for them instead, turning them into one of the many half-human, half-animal experiments.
After everything goes to hell after Christmas, they escape their containment and hide away within the garden, fighting to survive. They become a little more feral and wild, learning to leap from the trees given their difficulty actually flying. Expectantly, they're pretty distrusting, though Clayton is one who manages to befriend them.
When Howard arrives on the island, Mags starts out as an enemy, casting a shadow before jumping and attacking him from the trees. Howard can stun them with rocks from his slingshot, causing them to cry and retreat.
They can be befriended, which is easier with advice from Clayton - Just treat them like an actual child rather than a wild animal and offer some food. Their small size makes it hard for them to get anything without getting hurt in the process, so the temptation of food gets through to them.
After Howard befriends them, Mags start following him around. They can provide some help with the other experiments, usually throwing themselves at them as a distraction to run. They'll get hurt, but they'll recover. Probably. Eventually, Howard sends them to go with Angelique, forbidding them from coming to help find Phillip. Something they kinda didn't want to do, given how much they dislike the man.
In good ending, Howard adopts them! Given he practically did so already at some point on the island. They'll learn to be a child again, and eventually start opening up to the others.
Been into The Island of Doctor Morose as of late, so here's some AUs I've made up to date!
Warning for some spoilers down below, so don't get upset when I told you so.
Ancient Eldritch: An Eldritch Howard au, where the man in a brown hat has gained eldritch abilities and essentially became an outlet for the Great Old One. He gets hit with flashes of the past, present, and future, can sprout tentacles from his back when he gets too mad, causes an area of effect where people around him slowly get driven mad and start rhyming- etc. Haven't figured out a whole list of abilities yet. There's also the dash of immortality that he isn't aware of, at least not until after his loved ones have past. This AU switches between the past (time directly after the game, where he's slowly gaining these abilities) and the present (years and years later, where he's fully manifested them and is some sort of cryptid on the ruins of Morose's Island).
The Island of Madam Morose: Universe where Samantha lives but Thomas dies! The way it goes: Thomas and Phillip find the rock before she dies, experimenting with it. One of the rituals includes switching diseases and illnesses and Thomas decides he'd rather his wife live more than anything. Thus, he takes her illness himself, dying to it despite the best attempts to help. This, plus some lingering eldritch influences, cause her to go off the deep end like her dear husband in canon. However, she's a bit more manipulative, helping to convince more of the people and experiments to help her by offering them peace from their pain. Phillip and Angelique switch roles, but Phillip is still Howard's friend rather than Angelique. So, the man in the brown hat goes to save his friend and has to face a lot more enemies and challenges along the way (including possible betrayal).
Digital Beasts, Chaos Unleashed: Digimon AU, because why not mix up my two current interests! I shrunk the trio to child states and resurrected Katie Lou too! I had to double check the electronics at the time to see if this would even work, which it kinda does? Whatever, alternate universes, manipulate realities so it does- Anywho, the kids get sucked into the Digital World and get to go on adventures with their Digimon! Morose is, of course, a villain trying to resurrect his wife with assistance from the Digital Life forms. In terms of partners, I have Angelique (Jellymon), Katie Lou (Patamon), and Phillip (Pyontomon) figured out. I'm flip flopping between giving Howard Kamemon or Lunamon rn.
Quirk Study: A sort of My Hero AU, which is basically the canon game but if they had super powers too! The main study for Doctor Morose is that of quirks and the different ways they can be used to help people, at least so the public believes. Howard is someone who desparately wants to be part of this, given his own unpredictable quirk, but has been rejected constantly, while Phillip, with his healing quirk, is accepted on his first try.
"Good Times": A universe where nothing bad really happens! The Moroses are genuinely good people who follow a strong moral code with their experiments, Sam is cursed of her illness, Howard and Phillip are accepted, and Angelique's experiemnts with slime are successful! The entirety of Morose's crew decide to celebrate their successes on Christmas day, throwing a party.
However... this doesn't erase the Ancient Ones lurking deep below, nor the Great Old One that's waiting to wake up. Which, it does, unleashed by a certain someone that takes them as a host. So, the party immediately dissolves into chaos, and those that survive must find a way to stop the horrors before they get to the mainland.
Apollo stands motionless in his dim office, palms pressed into the wood of his desk, shoulders hunched and head tilted down, and thinks, I am not afraid.
this might turn into a rant about the most recent video actually. i need to get this out somewhere.
one. I LOVE SKULK GHOSTLY OH MY GOD LOOK AT HIM GOOOOOO LOOKKKKKKKK I LOVE MY EVIL GUY WOOOOOO
one point five: for anyone who knows the magnus archives. please. you have to understand me. desolation avatar ghostly. feeding off fear. feeding off the fear of losing your loved ones. using fire to set his victims ablaze forever. YOU GET IT RIGHT. MOST TMA CHARACTER EVER IN THE ENTIRETY OF THE ACU. LIKE. FEEDING OFF OF FEAR. IS THAT NOT MAGNUS ARCHIVES CODED.
one point seven. im also a big believer that he isnt actually dead. i dont think his final words would be something like "fascinating". or maybe he is actually dead and finally got to feel what "fear" is? all depends on if this is actually ghostly(who possibly made a deal with the skulk or something. idk. reminds me of cannibalism a bit. the whole "it looks disgusting but once you start eating you can't stop"), or is just a possession and its actually the skulk speaking through his body, tho i dont think the second one would make sense because he did say "it promised me so much food" like. what is "it".
two. space potato. i think his character might be similar to what i imagined he would be like. silly guy. whos probably on the brink of insanity. thats him! also his grandma is fucking horrifying i had to pause the video in genuine shock. sorry grandma. i think its time for you to go.
three. okay so we saw the skulk attack shadowmech. i think this could go two ways. 1. the skulk is like hey! i can give you power as long as you listen to me, i can make your corporation the most successful ever. youll be the dream business man. shadowmech is like okay kinda sketchy and then slowly becomes more and more corrupt under the skulk's influence becoming a horrible person and ends up as the main antagonist of the video or something.
Or 2. the skulk just completely takes over possessing the guy which in turn = main antagonist.
four. this video is the type of video where you have to watch it twice because oh my god. the fact that ghostly isnt visible to those that arent his targets. like. thats actually insane. and when you go back you REALLY start to notice it. ethan worrying over apollo and alexis. ethan not getting a drink for ghostly. forge's brother also being a little suspicious of apollo over the ghostly stuff. like oh my god. the details are INSANE like holy shit. genuinely my top 1 apollo video i think ive watched it like 6 times fully and the last section at least like 10 times.
im not normal. i have a math assessment due. i havent started editing yet. im so cooked.
(also introduced friends to apollotv via this video :), we arent going in chronological order but its been very fun.....)
Just watched some upperclassmen look over at her friend and say “Sora, throw more bodies at the problem” while doing a school project, and then this fucking kid just picks up two of their friends nearby and fucking chucks them at a desk which left their THIRD friend sitting there originally to get knocked over
So, you're writing fanfiction and your character has a fucked up back. Everyone has a little bit of back pain sometimes, but how does 'need surgery' back pain work? I'm using Robert Robertson Dispatch as a template here but feel free to use this on any characters you want to put in a jar and shake.
I can't speak to the nature of what Robert's exact spine damage is (although we all know he has some at least) but I assume his damage is probably chronic and lumbar, which is what I have, so I feel uniquely qualified to speak on this. Also, disclaimer: everyone has different experiences with this stuff so there's not really a right or wrong answer. Play around with it!
Think of chronic pain like a song that's playing in the background when you're trying to work. The song is always playing, or at the very least it always has the potential to be playing, and the volume changes. Most of the time it's at a low hum, constant and consistent, but you can tune it out well enough. It's not that you stop feeling the pain, but once you become familiar with it, it just turns into another one of the dozens of things you feel in and on your body.
The volume changes and fluxes constantly. When the volume is turned up you still have to ignore it, but it's much harder. It doesn't fade into the background as easily. This often makes you distracted and irritable because so much of your mental energy is being stolen by the pain. Occasionally the song is turned up so high that you can't think straight. This is a little more rare thankfully, but when it happens it sucks.
So.
What damage are we talking about, exactly?
Listen, I'm not a doctor, but I do have a truly insane quantity of pictures of CT and MRI scans, so take this with a grain of salt. Your back is made of vertebrae, right? Bones all stacked on top of each other. In between those are your spinal discs, little cushions between each vertebrae that keep the bones separate. Unfortunately those discs are very prone to wear and tear.
This is generally known as degenerative disc disease, a catch-all for the fact that as we age, our vertebrae work against these discs and wear them down. It is, unfortunately, inevitable, with age being the number one cause of disc degeneration. It’s far from the only cause, though; in fact, by the age of eighteen two of the discs in my back had basically disintegrated. This means that a few of my lumbar vertebrae (once again, bones) were grinding against each other for a couple of years. Obviously that hurts. I’ll get more into that later.
Risk is increased by an excess of physical exertion. If you move, so does your spine, shifting and rubbing. While this is natural, too much of anything is a bad thing. I assume that Robert in his years of workaholicism probably wore down the discs in his back a lot, most of this being in his lumbar (lower back, and the most common area for disc degeneration), although there was probably some amount of damage to his cervical spine (the spine in your neck).
The thing about degenerative disc disease is that it can take years for it to really become a problem worth addressing. In fact, basically everyone over the age of 40 has some level of disc degeneration as a natural consequence of aging. For most people, unless it becomes really severe and a detriment to their health, just focus on pain management.
So what does it actually feel like?
At first it's just an ache. It doesn't feel explicitly bad but it certainly doesn't feel good. It's weird.
'What do you mean chronic damage doesn't feel bad?' That's a fair question and it's one I don't really have an answer to. This started for me when I was pretty young (like, 10-12) so unfortunately I don't have very clear memories of what the onset was like, but I remember describing it as weird. It didn't hurt, it felt weird. It's like there's a zone of sensation, starting around the height where the hips dip in and going down to your ass. The truest word I can use to describe it is Uncomfortable. It aches and thrums like the hum of an AC. It tingles, almost.
Okay, what about when it starts getting worse, when it actually starts hurting in earnest? It's hard to draw a line between Uncomfortable and Pain. They hold elements of each other, they're inextricable, but it changes when the sensation starts feeling sharp. It graduates from that low thrum to a... louder thrum, I guess, and it's accompanied by that sharpness that we actually associate with pain. If you stretch by lifting your arms up, when you're relaxing there will be a quick, agonizing stabbing in the side of your spine. It lasts for only a few seconds but in the moment it's debilitating.
What's it like when the damage gets so bad the song gets deafening? The thrum is still there but it's all the way on max and it's accompanied by real pain. That zone of sensation tingles in a bad way and all the muscles in that area are tensed up which only makes it hurt worse. It's hard to think straight.
You don't actually feel it in your spine. That's why it's so weird and hard to explain. Hell, can you even feel your spine? Think about it. Think about where your spine is and try to feel it. You probably can't, or at least you can't feel it like you might expect to. That basically turns your spine into the Bermuda Triangle of pain. How do you know what you're feeling if you don't even know what you're feeling it from? That's why I described it as a zone of sensation. I'm not feeling it in my arm but I'm not feeling it as a rod of pain in my back, either. It's an extremely amorphous thing.
Your muscles hurt, too. They're strained and clenched because of the constant pain. I am woefully uninformed on muscle anatomy but at least in my experience, there's two long big muscles that run on either side on your spine and they require pretty frequent massaging to not ache so much. Your shoulders get pretty tense, too. Basically all the muscles on your back hate you.
Inflammation wants to kill you and your children. Whatever pain you feel now, inflammation makes it exponentially worse. Inflammation is when everything swells up, right? It takes up more space. Unfortunately your body only has so much space, meaning that once things swell they press down on nerves. You know how a pinched or compressed nerve is agony? Yeah, that's what inflammation is doing. In fact, for two months after my first surgery I had a hard time walking because the inflammation was pressing down on nerves and giving me terrible leg pain. On bad days I still get twinges, and this is a great way to force a mobility aid onto Robert. Diet is also a HUGE factor. Robert eats like shit, it's a lot of greasy hyperprocessed stuff, so that absolutely would make it worse.
Alright, how does this all work into a fic? Let's say we're writing in pre-canon where Robert has damage from being a workaholic and hasn't had surgery yet.
The tricky thing about chronic damage is that it isn't acute. It starts slowly and it's very easy to brush it off for years because it feels like just a minor discomfort. You just get so used to it that it's completely normal, it's a part of your life, and you don't even think about addressing it. I know this because it's exactly what I did. In fact, the only reason my damage was caught was because I made an offhanded comment to my doctor about 'the normal amount of back pain', at which point she side-eyed me and ordered an x-ray. I owe her my life. So, it's entirely probable that this, combined with the fact that Robert probably has a very high pain tolerance and is very stubborn, would never seek treatment and would likely already have some amount of damage by the time he crashes and ends up in a coma.
Sitting, standing, or lying down for extended periods of time hurts. The exact level of pain varies quite a bit depending on the situation but generally speaking the longer you stay still, the worse it gets. The onset and worsening of pain can be slowed with cushioning and support but unfortunately no pillow will delay the inevitable. If Robert is sitting in the mech for hours at a time, he's going to start hurting and it's only going to get worse until he can take a break and walk around. Even if he can take a break, that'll only offer a few minutes of relief if he just sits right back down and keeps on going. This goes double for if he's sitting at his desk, although I assume within canon by the time he's at SDN he's already had surgery.
You become prone to fidgeting. Motion is a temporary relief, it takes away that sharp jab for a couple of moments, and that’s a relief that you’ll spend every second of your day chasing. Shifting in your seat, standing up often, sitting down often, anything other than staying still.
Okay, so what's it like after surgery?
I assume that Robert had surgery after the crash so the coma gave him a break. I would write another six paragraphs about the entire process after surgery (lord knows I’m familiar with it), but I think the months in the coma allowed him to circumvent the worst of it. There are a few things, though.
No bending, twisting, or lifting anything over ten pounds. Oftentimes the point of spine surgery is to fuse the vertebrae together, which sounds awful but it’s a hell of a lot better than more damage. For the first few months after surgery the primary goal is ensuring the success of the fusion. This means that you have a fuckton of physical restrictions, restrictions I’m almost positive that Robert doesn’t comply with (I will admit to pushing the envelope on this myself). A lot of these are weight restrictions, a certain amount you’re not supposed to lift basically ever again. Once again, we know for a fact Robert will ignore this, but it makes for great nagging material.
You can’t feel the hardware in your back but you can feel more stability. I’ve had a few people ask if I can feel the rods in my back or if I feel restricted at all. No, I don’t, but there is a difference. It’s not stiff or restrictive, it’s very comfortable, actually. You are sore for quite a while after getting a bunch of stuff screwed into your bones, though.
Inflammation wants to kill you and your children (part two, electric boogaloo). Your body is not happy with the fact that someone just cut and carved and drilled holes and stuck a bunch of new shit in there. For the first few months the inflammation is the worst while your body is trying to adjust to everything, and that’s when it hurts the worst. It does thankfully go down with time but it can take up to a year for the worst of the inflammation to go away.
Alright, we've got all of that. How do we address pain if we want to give our guy a break?
OTC painkillers are basically useless. It's not that the pain is so severe that OTC's won't do anything, it just doesn't work, period. Occasionally if I'm in a really bad spot and I'm getting desperate I'll try taking ibuprofen or something, but it has truly zero effect. If your Robert doesn't have prescription medication you could use this as an excuse for why he doesn't take medication, because this shit truly does nothing. The only OTC I've found any relief in is the combination of acetaminophen and ibuprofen which, fun fact, can be as effective as an opioid! Un-fun fact, doing this chronically will destroy your liver, so I keep my distance.
Okay, prescription medication! I'm not a pharmacist so please take this section with a grain of salt. The most common prescribed pain managements are painkillers (opioid and non-opioid) and muscle relaxers. A lot of people with chronic back pain take maintenance medication, meaning something they take every day around the same time to try and bring down the baseline level of pain, such as gabapentin. There's also medication for breakthrough pain, meaning that the normal regimen is falling short, which is generally where you have to break out the heavy stuff, like narcotics. I, personally, avoid these as much as I can, because they really fuck with my head. Like, staring into the void, takes a minute to string a sentence together level of fuckery. This is also a great excuse for why Robert may not want to take them. I usually stick to muscle relaxers which are extremely effective and don't make me a zombie.
Heat! Heat is our best friend. Hot baths, heating pads, etc, are very effective. Heat forces your muscles to relax and dilates your blood vessels, meaning more blood is flowing to the area. If I could walk around with a heating pad on my back, I would.
Laying on your side. Like I mentioned earlier, sitting and laying down can hurt, which is really really frustrating since chronic pain is also fatiguing. The most pain-friendly position I've found is lying on my side, but that doesn't get rid of the pain immediately. It usually takes a couple of minutes and some patience in this position to start getting any relief.
Motion is a maintenance and breakthrough medication. Shifting on your feet or side-to-side or standing up and walking is a very quick way to get relief although it doesn’t last very long, usually a few seconds or a couple of minutes. Exercise is a friend you have a complicated relationship with. You do need to move and it does help with pain management but you have to be very careful to not overdo it. Of course, Robert overdoes it.
TENS units! TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. It’s a little device with a bunch of wires connected to it, these wires being connected to a couple of little pads with sticky jelly on them. You stick the pads wherever your pain is the worst and turn it on, at which point it’s basically sending low-level electrical shocks to the area. It’s a very odd sensation but one that I personally find helpful. It feels like buzzing and while it doesn’t get rid of the pain by any means, the additional stimulation does help distract from it. If you’re familiar with the gate theory of pain, that’s what this is doing.
Massages and hot baths. These are great for relaxing the muscles in the affected area and helping with some of the inflammation. I often take hot baths with Epsom salt and I find some level of relief in it, although it really depends. I’m imagining Robert being forced into a nice, hot bath, and then getting a massage. He suffers so much, he deserves it.
And that’s pretty much it! I know this was very long but I really wanted you guys to have as much information as I could provide. I thought about adding another section on scars and wound care but I figure that’s it’s own thing. Once again, I’m not the primary authority on back problems! All of this is taken from my own personal experience and that doesn’t make anyone else’s experiences incorrect or less valid.
If you have any questions, I will answer! Hope this is helpful and make that man suffer!
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It's been a year, but here's Part 2 of this! No spoilers, but put under the cut. TW for mild body horror/faint description of injuries and robotic sickness?
“He comforted me, when I was hurt or sick. I know, basic of what a parent should do. But, it was still nice, y’know? Having him stick around to make sure I was better – Even if he didn’t exactly know how to make me better.”
To answer their earlier questions– No, he did not always have his wings. He could remember the times when his back was free from the weight of them, from the organic stretch and pull so different from his mostly mechanical body.
He could also remember the day that they sprouted from his back. It wasn’t a good day—A good week, actually.
When Apollo was young, a cold feeling had begun to spread throughout his body. It was like someone had placed a block of ice in his stomach, a chill stretching out across every wire. He found that he could hardly move, his system slowing down and freezing, leaving him with limited movements. His vision also swarmed with static, leaving stubborn grey spots that gave him headaches.
But when his father went to check on him, to feel the same cold he had complained about, he was burned. To him, Apollo was overheating, his vents blasting hot air with every wheeze and cough he made. Some of his circuitry was fried, that being the real reason it was so hard for him to move.
It was… concerning, to say the least. He had never really been ‘sick’ before, and never to this degree, not for this many days.
On that fateful day, the cyborg was curled on his side in his bed, cocooned in his sheets. His body was wracked with wheezes and coughs, still freezing despite the heat. He could hear his door creak open, his father stepping inside, but couldn’t properly greet him, instead blindly reaching for him.
“D̶-̴- ̸a̴d̶,” he croaked, sending himself into a coughing fit as his throat buzzed. His father winced, approaching and gently placing a cool wet cloth against Apollo’s forehead. He let out a glitched whine at first, trying to shy away from the cloth, but his father pressed it down. “1̴t̷-̶ ̵s̸ ̸c̴o̸-̵ ̵0̵l̷d̶–”
“I know, son, I’m sorry,” his father murmured, sympathetic. He watched as some steam rose from where the cloth touched Apollo’s screen, concern creasing his brow. “But you’re burning up and need to cool down. From what I’ve seen, this is the best way to go about it.”
“\̶/̸\̶/̵-̵h̵y̵ ̸i̷$̶ ̷t̷h̴!̷s̸ ̵h̸4̴p̴p̵e̶n̸i̸n̴g̷g̶g̵g̷g̴g̴g̶g̶g̸g̸–” His voice pitched high at the end, making his father further wince as Apollo trailed off into another whine.
“I don’t know, son– But it will pass soon. Just keep resting.”
A hand was placed on his shoulder, a thumb rubbing soothing circles into his back. It was meant to be comforting, but it made the cyborg squirm uncomfortably. It felt like he was pressing on his shoulderbone – Which was impressive, given he didn’t actually have one. There was a pause, before he felt his father pressing down slightly, discomfort growing as pressure built up.
Apollo made a glitched noise that didn’t quite leave his throat, trying to roll away. He didn’t get very far, only flopping onto his stomach and groaning at the effort of it. The pressure didn’t seem like it was going away, even after his father pulled his hand away, instead just pressing uncomfortably against the underside of his back.
“H̷̡̙͠n̷̦̂n̸͙̙͂̀g̷̾ͅͅh̷̙͈̑̒–̵̻̿͐” His fingers curled into the sheets as he groaned, his screen flickering. He hunched over slightly, pressing his face into the pillows as ERROR signs flashed across his vision, buried under growing static. He could hear his father calling to him, trying to talk– But he couldn’t answer, not with all his systems screaming at him–
A warped, muffled scream tore from his throat, as he felt two large things tear through his back, ripping through metallic flesh like parchment. They stretched out, large and heavy, straining as far as they could before stopping. They felt heavy yet strangely light, weighing down on him as they balanced in the air.
There was a slight twitch, his system blasting his head with strange new sensations as the appendages moved. He could hear someone yelling in the background, distant and underwater, too focused on the feeling of blood oil oozing from his wounds.
Distantly, he heard what sounded like bird chirping, and could see what looked like feathers falling to his sheets. He wondered why a bird decided to enter his room of all places, especially with his earlier scream. It hurt his throat just thinking about it…
As his head began to settle, he realized it was coming from him. Those strange, distressed bird noises filling the air, were his. Those soft, downy feathers stained with gold, decorating his bed, were his.
What–?
“–pollo!”
He flinched at the loud voice cutting through the static, finally coming to his senses. His back stung, sharper now that he was aware, feathers and cloth clinging to the wounds. A hand touched his shoulder and he squawked, scrambling away as his father stared at him with wide eyes.
“I– W-Wings,” his father stuttered, blinking as he stared behind Apollo. “You– You have wings!”
Said wings twitched at the attention, straining to cover him. He made a noise, something like a whimper and a sob as a sudden wave of pain hit him. “D̶̦̻͊̓a̸͚͔̐–̴̪̝̾d̷̦̯̈–̸̛͇̰ D̵͕͒̋a̷̭͈̒d–!”
That sprung his father into action, the man looking over him, hesitant to touch him. Apollo clung to his father as soon as he was close enough, releasing his grip on the torn sheets to latch onto his father’s tunic and burying his screen into his chest.
“Oh, my poor boy,” he heard the man murmur, looking at the mess of feathers, oil, and torn clothing on his back. He felt a hand touch the area above the wings, pressing gingerly, and flinched as a stab of pain hit him. The wings twitched, agitated as well.
His father sighed, cradling him as he reached for the wet cloth that had originally been meant to cool him off. “I’m sorry son, this is going to sting.”
And sting it did, as the man began to clean away the oil and stray feathers from the wounds, starting at the base of his wings. He wiped the areas around them, wincing every time the cyborg made a distressed and pained noise.
“It’s alright, Apollo… Just bear with me, you’re doing great son… At least you aren’t sick anymore, right?” his father offered weakly, a strained smile on his face as he continued to clean.
Apollo made an annoyed chirp at that, his grip tightening as another spike of pain shot through him. He felt overwhelmed, taking on the new sensations with the new wings and the constant sting that came with cleaning them. He buried his face further into his father’s chest, his antennas flat against the top of his head.
“Still have a bit to do,” his father mumbled, and he made a sort of static whine. There was silence for a few moments, only broken by his flinching, before the man spoke again. His voice was soft, gentle as he asked, “Do you know what they look like? Your wings?”
His antennas twitched, though his head did not lift, screen dark. His hands gripped onto his father’s shirt tighter, and the man took that as a sign to continue. “Well, they’re a bit messy right now, but, looking at it, they’ll be beautiful once they’re cleaned. They’re mostly black, but there’s some white and grey flecks here and there, almost like snowdrops–”
The man rambled on, describing the heavy wings upon his son’s back, as he continued to clean in a soothing manner. Apollo listened, his grip slowly relaxing, the pain becoming less apparent. He wasn’t truly paying attention, though he did try to, to the best of his abilities. Instead, he just… let himself get lost in the background noise of his father’s words, a soft hum leaving him as he felt his body relax.
It was…
“Done.”
His screen flickered back on, as the cloth pulled away, stained with gold and covered in small feathers. The bed was in a similar state, though definitely worse, his sheets torn due to his own claws. He hadn’t noticed ripping them in his panic and pain, some scraps of the silk clinging to his fingertips.
His father sighed at the sight of it, but pulled back, observing his son. He hesitated, then placed his hands on Apollo’s shoulders, giving him a small smile. “How do you feel? Any better?”
Apollo stared up at him, cautiously trying to flex or at least stretch the wings. There was… a strain still, not painful but sore and strange. Something he would have to get used to. But, there wasn’t any pain anymore, and so he nodded. “Y-Yeah. Better.”
The man looked relieved, pulling the cyborg into a hug. His arms were tucked under the wings, careful to avoid the still healing areas. Apollo returned the hug, arms wrapping around his neck and screen pressing into his shoulder. His wings rose, curling around his father, accidentally smacking the man in the face.
“Pfft–”
“Sorry!”
His father’s laughter boomed, covering the noise of his apologies as he swiped the stray feathers from his face. He lifted his son up off the bed, high over his head, the boy squawking as he felt his feet leave the ground, wings and feet flailing. Apollo glared, his screen bright, about to demand his father put him down because he’d like his feet to be on the ground–
–only to stop, seeing his father’s bright and proud smile, the soft look he had staring up at Apollo. It was like… he was already seeing him fly, long before he had the skills to, soaring through the clouds under the bright rays of the sun. His wings twitched, stretching out wide, almost like it was trying to mimic the image that he imagined played in his father’s head.
The last bit of ice in his chest seemed to melt, replaced with something warm and excited, as he laughed alongside his father, pretending to fly in his grasp as the sun shined through the window.
Art of my Digimon TTRPG character Sylve Duval! Her partner is a Floramon (which I kinda suck at drawing at lol. First time I did the whole body rather than just her head)
She's from the Digimon DnD Data Scramble (Recorded on the Redaskari Gaming Channel)
I've talked about him before, but I've been watching Apollo TV and recently joined his discord! Its a very welcoming community and I love all the friends I've made there. Makes me want to put an insane amount of effort into the art I make. So here's some of it.
